A Small World after All

Here they go again. Just a few weeks after standards for
teaching American history brought criticism from conservatives who
bemoaned the new outlook, guidelines for the study of world history
are generating similar complaints. If anything, though, lessons in
the history of the world need to be broadened beyond the
traditional focus on Europe that has characterized textbooks for
generations.

That European emphasis grew naturally out of the experience of
those who first colonized North America. What they came from and
what they fought to escape presented a natural contrast that showed
young Americans where much of their culture and their values had
begun. Western civilization was not only the name given many
standard history courses; it was also the source of much of what
initially evolved and emerged as American.

The world has changed a lot since then, transformed by
succeeding waves of immigration, world wars, jet-age
transportation, instant communication and an economy that is
undeniably global. What happens in other countries affects what
happens in the United States, and what happens in other countries
today is affected by what happened there in the past. The world is
truly shrinking.

Recognizing that international interdependence, historians
commissioned by the Department of Education and the national
Endowment for the Humanities developed standards for the study of
world history. …

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